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Autor: Rhonda

~ 26/03/07

Apparently, St. Louis isn’t the only city with pending transportation woes for the next couple of years, as the New York Times points out today. Besides the stark contrast in transportation methods and density of users, there are a few similarities between Chicago’s plans for their “el” and our plans for our “Farty.”

Chicago is bracing for more than 2 ½ years of track closings along the Brown Line (which runs through Chicago’s trendy and popular Lincoln Park and northside); we are bracing for MODOT’s 2 ½ years of highway closings. Transit officials in both cases say the projects are necessary evils – the result of years of neglect/decline.

Perhaps, this guy says it best:

“The notion that we’re supposed to prepare for a doubling of our commute time for the next two and a half years is so laughable to me I haven’t been able to get my arms around it,” said Peter Skosey, a transit expert with the Metropolitan Planning Council, a nonprofit advocacy group. “I’m going to make sure my bike tires are inflated.

I’m going to make sure I get a bike, but otherwise we’ll have to see what this year, ’08 and ’09 bring … How will the 40 shutdowns affect you?